Mali crisis: Protest movement says detention of president a popular insurrection

“IBK did not want to listen to his people. We even proposed an alternative but he responded with killings,” Nouhoum Togo, spokesman for the M5-RFP coalition, told Reuters, referring to Keita by his initials.

Rebel troops had seized President Keita and the Prime Minister Boubou Cisse in a dramatic escalation on Tuesday following months-long crisis.

Neighbouring states in West Africa, along with France, the European Union and the African Union, condemned the sudden mutiny and warned against any unconstitutional change of power in the fragile country.

Mutineering troops had seized the base hours earlier before taking control of the surrounding streets and driving in convoy to the capital Bamako.

The UN Security Council will hold emergency talks on the crisis on Wednesday, diplomats in New York said.

Boubou Doucoure, who works as Cisse’s director of communications, confirmed that the pair had been detained and had been driven in armoured vehicles to an army base in the town of Kati, about 15 kilometres (nine miles) away.

REUTERS